Equipment such as rock crushers and screens used to size separate crushed rock from such rock crushers, may be operated by internal combustion engines. Such engines include a source of fuel e.g. diesel, gasoline, propane, natural gas, etc. and an air intake that conveys air to the engine's combustion chamber.
It is important for engine longevity that the air drawn from the atmosphere via the air inlet be relatively free of contaminates. Thus, such engines are provided with an air filter. Under normal circumstances, such as in road vehicles, the ambient air is satisfactorily filtered by a pleated paper engine filter just prior to directing the air to the combustion chamber. However, over time filtered particles from the ambient air will build up on the filter media, which results in progressive impedance of air passage through the filter, thus requiring a filter change. This change of filters for a road vehicle may be necessary in infrequent intervals, such as annually.
A heavy equipment engine operated at a job site, however, is generally exposed to a different environmental situation, where the amount of air contaminants/particulate can be many times greater than the density of contaminants encountered by a typical road vehicle. For example in a rock crushing operation, the rock dust that is entrained in the ambient air creates a cloud of rock dust, which can clog the air intake filter within a matter of hours of operation. Repetitively changing filters after but a few hours of operation is highly unsatisfactory and failure to do so can result in severe engine damage.